Analytical Fifth-[sixth] Reader: Containing an Introductory Article on the ...

useful) employments through the day, and what she proposes for her to-morrow's task.

7. “Her heart and her features are changed by the duties of her situation. To the boys she never appears other than the master's wife, and she looks up to me as the boys' master, to whom all show of love and affection would be highly improper, and unbecoming the dignity of her situation and mine. Yet this my gratitude forbids me to hint to her. For my sake she submitted to be this altered creature, and can I reproach her for it ?”

CXIII.—THE TRUE TEACHER.

J. G. HOLLAND. 1. I hold the teacher's position second to none. The Christian teacher of a band of children combines the office of the preacher and the parent, and has more to do in shaping the mind and the morals of the community than . preacher and parent united. The teacher who spends six hours a day with my child, spends three times as many hours as I do, and twenty fold more time than my pastor does. I have no words to express my sense of the importance of your office.

2. Still less have I words to express my sense of the importance of having that office filled by men and women of the purest motives, the noblest enthusiasm, the finest culture, the broadest charities, and the most devoted Christian purpose. Why, sir, a teacher should be the strongest and most angelic man that breathes. No man living is intrusted with such precious material. No man living can do so much to set human life to a noble tune. No man living needs higher qualifications for his work. Are you “fitted for teaching"? I do not ask you this question to discourage you, but to stimulate you to an effort at preparation which shall continue as long as you continue to teach.

CXIV.-THE MORAL DIGNITY OF THE EDUCA

TIONAL PROFESSION.

W. E. CHANNING. 1. One of the surest signs of the regeneration of society will be the elevation of the art of teaching to the highest rank in the community. When a people shall learn that its greatest benefactors and most important members are men devoted to the liberal instruction of all its classes,—to the work of raising to life its buried intellect, it will have opened to itself the path of true glory.

. 2. There is no office higher than that of a teacher of youth; for there is nothing on earth so precious to the mind, soul, and character of the child. No office should be regarded with greater respect. The first minds in the community should be encouraged to assume it. Parents should do all but impoverish themselves, to induce such to become the guardians and guides of their children. To this good all their show and luxury should be sacrificed.

3. Here they should be lavish, whilst they straiten themselves in everything else. They should wear the cheapest clothes, live on the plainest food, if they can in no other way secure to their families the best instruction. They should have no anxiety to accumulate property for their children, provided they can place them under influences which will awaken their faculties, inspire them with pure and high principles, and fit them to bear a manly, useful, and honorable part in the world. No language can express the cruelty or folly of that economy which, to leave a fortune to a child, starves his intellect, impoverishes his heart.

sign! See where amid the clouds of war its new-born glories shine! The despot's doom, the slave's dear hòpe, we bear it on the

foe! God's voice rings down the brightening path! Say, brothers, will ye go ? 2. “My father fought at Donelson ; he held at dawn of day That flag full blown upon the walls, and proudly passed away." “ My brother fell on Newbern's shore; he bared his radiant

head, And shouted On! the day is won !'-— leaped forward and was

dead.” “My chosen friend of all the world hears not the bugle-call; A bullet pierced his loyal heart by Richmond's fatal wall.” But seize the hallowed swords they dropped, with blood yet

moist and red ! Fill up the thinned, immortal ranks, and follow where they

led! For right is might, and truth is God, and He upholds our

cause, The grand old cause our fathers loved, - Freedom and Equal

Laws !

3. “My mother's hair is thin and white; she looked me in

the face, She clasped me to her heart and said, 'Go take thy brother's

place !'” “My sister kissed her sweet farewell ; her maiden cheeks were

wet;

Around my neck her arms she threw; I feel the pressure

yet.” “My wife sits by the cradle's side, and keeps our little home, Or asks the baby on her knee, "When will thy father

strong! The whizzing shell may burst in fire, the shrieking bullet fly, The heavens and earth may mingle grief, the gallant soldier

die; But while a haughty rebel stands, no peace, for peace is war; The land that is not worth our death is not worth living for!

4. Then rally round the banner, boys! Its triumph draweth

nigh! See where above the clouds of war its seamless glories fly! Peace hovering o'er the bristling van, waves palm and laurel

fair, And victory binds the rescued stars in freedom's golden hair!

CXVI.-SLAVERY.

WILLIAM COWPER. 1. O for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade! Where rumor of oppression and deceit, Of unsuccessful or successful war, Might never reach me more. My ear is pained, My soul is sick, with every day's report Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled.

2. There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart; It does not feel for man; the natural bond Of brotherhood is severed, as the flax That falls asunder at the touch of fire. He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not colored like his own; and having power To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.

3. Lands intersected by a narrow frith Abhor each other. Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops been mingled into one. Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys; And, worse than all, and most to be deplored, As human nature's broadest, foulest blot, Chains him and tasks him and exacts his sweat With stripes that mercy, with a bleeding heart, Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast.

4. Then what is man? And what man seeing this, And having human feelings, does not blush And hang his head to think himself a man? I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That sinews bought and sold have ever earned. No: dear as freedom is, and in my heart's Just estimation, prized above all price, I had much rather be myself the slave And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him.

5. We have no slaves at home—then why abroad? And they themselves, once ferried o'er the wave That parts us, are emancipate and looscd.